Last week, former Crimson athlete Matt Freese ’22 made history as the first Harvard alumnus to play in the men’s World Cup. Freese started as goalkeeper for the U.S. Men’s National Team in their opening match against Paraguay on June 12, which the U.S. won 4-1.
For most of his life, Freese has been surrounded by scientists. His late father, Andrew Freese A.B. ’81, M.D. ’85 was a neurosurgeon and pioneer in gene therapy who earned a Ph.D. in neurobiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His grandparents, German immigrants, worked at the National Institutes of Health. His mother, Marcia, founded a medical management company, and his aunt, Katherine Freese, is a theoretical astrophysicist.
Perhaps that’s why Freese brings such precision to the game he loves. At Harvard, he wrote an analytical research paper on penalty kicks. Speaking to NBC News ahead of the World Cup, Freese reflected that “a lot of goalkeeping is maximizing the surface area of the goal that you can cover at any given point.”
Freese arrived at Harvard with an impressive soccer résumé. Before joining the Crimson, he played for Philadelphia Union Academy (one of the country’s top soccer academies, affiliated with the Major League Soccer team Philadelphia Union), trained with Manchester United, and represented the United States at the U19 level.
After appearing in three matches during his first year at Harvard, he became the Crimson’s starting goalkeeper in 2018 as a sophomore. That season, he earned Second Team All-Ivy honors and delivered a series of standout performances, including a career-high nine saves against Dartmouth and eight-save outings versus nationally ranked Cornell and Boston College.
Following the season, he signed with the Philadelphia Union, leaving Cambridge to pursue a professional career while later completing his economics degree remotely. A trade to New York City FC in 2023 proved transformative, with Freese winning the starting role as goalkeeper. His first senior national-team call-up, however, didn’t arrive until 2025.
Freese is not the only Harvard graduate with World Cup connections. Midfielder Josefine Hasbo ’25 represented Denmark at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup (she now plays for the Boston Legacy FC), while Margaret “Midge” Purce ’17 played for years on the U.S. women’s national team (and now plays for Gotham FC). But Freese’s selection marks a singular milestone for Harvard men’s soccer, placing a Crimson alumnus on the sport’s biggest stage for the first time.
While Harvard has produced numerous professional athletes and Olympians across a range of sports, the World Cup remains the world’s most-watched sporting event. Freese’s debut came during a tournament jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico—the first men’s World Cup to return to North America since 1994.
Freese’s next game with Team U.S.A. takes place Friday, June 19, at 3 p.m. EDT against Australia.
